1998 Italian Police Report
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POLIZLA DI STAT0 . SERVIZIOCENTRALE OPERATWO .. ., . ..- .- .. ... -._.. .. ,.. .- INCONTRO di LAVORO Roma, 7 - 8 Ottobre 1998 RZS TO /if SERVIZIO CENTRALE OPERATlVO DELLA POLlZlA DI STAT0 00144 ROMA - WALE DUL'OCEANO PACIFICO. 44 EL(06) 54.29.31 - FAX (Os) 5423.70.43 UKRAINIAN ORGANIZED CRIME Symposium Rome, October 7 - 8, I998 DIPARTIMENTO DELLA PUBBLICA SICUREZZA - DlRUlONE CENTRALE DELLA POLlZlA CRIMINALE RISER VAT0 R 1 S E R V A T 0 Servizio Centrale Operativo della Polkia di Stat0 The police information contained in this document is to be considered as confidential, since the investigations are still in progress. Therefore, any use of it should be previously agreed upon with our Office. 2 ' I------ .. A_....--. I.'lu. .~. wyy - -- s E R v A 'r Qrvizio Centrale Operativo della Polizia di Stat0 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 INTRODUCTION 4 PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS I. "RASPUTIN Operation" 2. "SHAKH I MAT" Operation 3. "LEON" Operation THE UKRAINIAN MAFIA 10 I. The Odessa organized crime. 11 2. The Oil Mafia 11 3. Odessa and the "Neftemafija" 13 I INVESTIGATIVE ACTIVITY IN ITALY 15 I. The Structure of the Organization 17 I. I The "Soldiers" 17 I .2. Leadership 18 2. Illicit activities 20 INFORMATION CARDS 23 ANGERT (or ANGHERT or ANGUERT) Alexandre 24 MlNlN LEONID EFIMOVICH 30 TCHERNJAK ALEKSANDRE 54 DIDYK Oleksandr 57 M IROCHNTICHENKO Serguei 58 FOMICHEV Nicholaj 59 MALYSHEV lgor 61 KLESHCHOV Oleg 63 TRUKHANOV Gennadiy Leonidovyc 64 CONCLUSIONS 66 ... ..I 3 INTRODUCTION First Russian nationals' settlements in Italy date back to early '70's when Jewish Russian immigrants reached the Rome coast and other Italian regions. The problem of Russian organized crime has attracted the Italian investigators' attention further tu sume minor events occurred late in '80's; however, at that time, none of them enabled us to detect and identify any organization or group that could be related to the Russian Mafia. After the abolition of borders between eastern and western Europe. a continuous flow of former Soviet Union's nationals has concerned Italy; some of them made marriages of convenience with the only view to obtaining stay permits and becoming Italian nationals; afterwards they started working in different business enterprises. Others begun to set up small criminal groups exploiting prostitution and smuggling small quantities of narcotics. The analysis of the Russian Mafia phenomenon has been started when Monya ELSON' was located in Fano, in the province of Pesaro. In the United States the latter was involved in extortions. drug trafficking, forgery and murders; he survived four attempts on his life at least. According to the information obtained by some foreign investigation services. some members of the so-called "Russian Mafia" penetrated the American criminal world and then decided to move from United States to Europe because of the numerous controls over Russian nationals carried out by the U.S. authorities. In the United States Monya ELSON had set up a criminal organization denominated "Monya's Brigade". The afore-said organization was linked to the powerful Euroasiatic criminal organization "Sointsevskaja", based in Moscow, with more than 2,000 associates among which many important persons being in contact with government spheres all over the world, as well as with former KGB agents and leaders of other important Euroasiatic criminal groups. Sergej MIKHAJLOV, who has been arrested by Swiss authorities, and Victor AVERIN are the leaders of the aforementioned organization. 'Alias "Kishinevskij". born in Kishinev (Moldavia) on May 23, 195 I. - 4 Servizio Centrale Operatho della Politia di Stat0 RISER VAf'o PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS 1. "RASPUTIN Op eration" In February 1995 our police services noticed the presence in Italy of one Monya ELSON who was considered the "number two" of a Russian criminal organization operating in the United States, and namely in the New York area, carrying out illegal activities such as drug trafficking (in particular traffic in heroin). The U.S. Department of Justice requested ELSON's provisional arrest with a view to extradition since he was considered to be the leader of a powerhl criminal organization known as "Monya's Brigade" as well as responsible for three murders perpetrated in January and June 1992, respectively to the detriment of Vjaceslav and Vadim LJUBARSKIJ and of one SLEPENIN, for two attempts on the life of Boris NAYFELD and Vjaceslav LJUBARSKIJ, for criminal association, traffic in heroin and extortion as well. After some days' moving surveillance, on March 8. Monya ELSON was arrested with a view to extradition towards the United States. On the occasion of his arrest. ELSON was found in possession of a huge amount of Italian fires. several precious objects, a BentIey car and many documents testifying that he had started a business activity aimed at purchasing fomiture and other products that were exported mainly to former Soviet Union. During the investigation the following elements were ascertained: 1 ) The presence in our Country of some members of Russian mafia groups that had already operated in the New York area; in particular ELSON had started to launder illicit profits by investing it in business activities and by transferring it to corrent accounts opened in some banks in the Pesaro area. The money was transferred from and to foreign and Italian companies; therefore, many cash transactions were carried out by means of these accounts. The afore-said Russian nationals were allegedly in contact with 43 Italian companies, mainly operating in the fomiture and jewellery sectors. This kind of transactions covered money laundering operations in the amount of 3 million U.S. dollars. At the end of the investigations, besides Monja ELSON, other five Russian nationals were arrested. 2) In 1980 a group of Russian mafia members began to settle in Latium region and to provide logistic support to the other associates. This criminal group 5 R I S E R VAT e'-[&ioCentrule Operativo della Polizia di Stat0 carried out other illicit activities such as prostitution, traffic in drugs and frauds. 3) Furthermore, the investigations ascertained the presence in Italy of various Russian criminal groups, coming from the United States, who had set their operational bases in Italy in order to provide strict contacts between the associates resident of Russia and those living in the United States. Monya ELSON's arrest determined a new phase of the Italian fight against Russian organized crime. In particular, the State Police "Servizio Centrale Operativo" (Central Operational Service) started a monitoring activity in order to detect any Russian settlement in Italy and to make a broad outline of the phenomenon in our Country. ._... ... 6 Sentizio CeniraLe Operaiivo deLIa Polizia di Siaio RISERVAT0 2. "SHAKH I MAT'I Operation, The aforementioned monitoring activity was underlying a complicated investigation on a Russian criminal organization dealing with money laundering, kidnappings and extortions. In particular, on the basis of the afore-said investigative results our police services focused their attention on the thief in law Jourij ESSINE, coming from Vladivostok (C.I.S.), who had replaced Monya ELSON in the criminal hierarchy. The analysis of ELSON's contacts and the examination of the information concerning the Russian mafia and its gradual settlement in Italy resulted in detecting 6 I'.. ., another group of persons living in Rome, headed by an important member of the L Russian organized crime, identified as Dmitrg NAOUMOV, who was killed in Moscow in September 1996. A long series of further links and connections derived from the investigations carried out on the latter. The investigations revealed the presence of an extremely dangerous criminal group that, by perpetrating different crimes, pursued a precise criminal aim typical of a "conspiracy of mafia type", making use of contacts and connivances between the Russian mafia operating in Italy and the Russian political institutions. The phone conversations wire-tapped during the investigations revealed the complicity between Govemment representatives, Russian ministries, members of the Russian Duma and some important members of Russian organized crime living in Italy who were interested in encouraging business transactions such as the purchase of foodstuff for humanitarian aid, financed through dirty money. In such an investigative context, the analysis of the activities carried out by the afore-said prominent Russian criminals in Italy enabled our investigators to detect several sectors the criminal organization was interested in. Furthermore, the police services could identify some members of the Russian organized crime who set up an impressive business structure and made huge illicit capitals enter our country in different ways in order to provide the basis for their activity. This kind of criminal penetration is particularly dangerous since it altered the regular market systems. The case of the GLOBUS TRADING s.r.1. can be mentioned as an example concerning fuel trade: besides many members of the Russian mafia, one Albedo GROTTI operated within this company; the latter was -_the former vice-president of EN1 ( National Hydrocarbon Corporation) and in 7 November 1996 was arrested on charge of corruption. f By means of the above-mentioned company acting as intermediary, many agreements were conducted with a view to purchasing huge quantities of oil; the i relevant transactions were generally directed towards those firms controlled by the Russian mafia and subjected to extortion. i The police operation denominated "SHAKH I MAT" (checkmate) ended in l March 1997 when the Rome Judicial Authority issued 19 orders for precautionary t custody; 14 of them were executed in Madonna di Campiglio and in other Italian towns for criminal conspiracy of mafia type, kidnapping, extortion and other crimes i to the detriment of Russian and Italian nationals, f On that occasion. the police carried out several searches involving about 40 f '1 persons under investigation and seized many current accounts, and shares belonging 1 to three different companies as well as a luxury villa.